First Day of Teaching

At the beginning of the day, I had to stand in front of the entire teachers' office and get introduced, in Korean, by the new vice principal. I have no idea what she said about me, but I bowed, everyone clapped, it went okay. Then I find out that I have to get introduced to the school on their TV announcement program! I felt like I was back in middle school. The kids who work there are the Korean equivalents of me at 13 years old. Adorable. Again, the new VP introduced me and the other new teachers to everyone on television. It went alright but it definitely made me more nervous before I started teaching!

Yesterday was my first day of teaching by myself! I was sooo nervous. I had four classes, but one got cancelled. I taught grades 8 and 9 culture topics and grade 8 from the textbook. I had more than enough stuff to fill the class, but I think I should play a few more games, especially in those culture classes, to get the kids more engaged. Overall, I think it went pretty well for a first day. I played a game to introduce myself to them, and that seemed to go over very well. With more practice, it can only get better from here.

A few notes about my school: there is a woman who comes around on Monday afternoons to hand out yogurt snacks to the teacher, so that's excellent! My fan club came back during lunch again today, and I got to name someone today. I feel like naming someone who is not your own child is giving me like WAY too much power. Anyway, as I said before, she wanted something unique and French, so I went with Yvonne. Also, the bells to announce classes are basically a little song. All the little tones at home are very musical in Korea.

So after school, I went to speak to the landlord about getting faster wifi. Although I do have wifi, I am completely missing out on the whole "South Korea has the fastest internet in the world thing." The landlord didn't understand me and mimed calling my co-teacher, so I broke down and called her, even though I was trying not to bother her. I actually just got a new co-teacher yesterday because my original one changed schools. I called my old co-teacher, which I feel awful about...probably should have just waited on the internet thing...oh well. I think we got it sorted out, and the guy will hopefully be coming to make it faster soon. I have to pay a little more, but I really need my internet to be faster. After a while, Gianni came over and we went to Kim Pasa for dinner. It's a 24 hours place that is basically like Korean fast food or a Korean diner. I wanted udon noodles, but they ended up being spicy, so I could only eat the noodles. We also got mandu, Korean dumplings, and kimbap, Korean sushi. We ate and watched shows as best we could with my wifi connection. It was a relaxing night.